The Big Reuse team

Bella Rabinovich

Born and raised in the Bronx, I currently live in Queens. The Bronx will always be my favorite, but Queens is growing on me. I went to SUNY Geneseo for my bachelor’s, and am currently a master’s student in Miami University’s Advanced Inquiry Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Which is cool, because I get to go to class in the Bronx Zoo and the NY Aquarium. I previously worked with the Forest Project at Wave Hill.

Charles Lynch

Born in Altus, Oklahoma, Charles moved to New York City with his mother and sister in 1990 and has hailed from the Bronx ever since. A graduate of Cardinal Spellman High School, Charles now studies Nutrition at Bronx Community College. Before working for NYC Compost Project, Charles interned at The Horticultural Society of New York. He enjoys composting because he feels that everything has a purpose and can be re-purposed. He is proud to do work that helps him both understand and teach about the process of turning unwanted food and scraps into compost, something so vital and useful for the planet. When he’s not making compost at BIG, Charles is often working out at the gym or studying for his nutrition classes.

Chris Fox

Chris Fox graduated from the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union in 2008. Before becoming a Deconstructionist with Big Reuse, he worked in architecture, rogue clandestine carpentry, and upholstery, to name a few trades. While on the surface he appears to be just a nice mid-western architect from St. Louis, in reality Chris Fox is a wild man from wild stock. Some of his ancestors were whalers in the Hamptons (before they were “The Hamptons”), while others were competitive ice skate barrel rollers. That’s where you spin on a barrel wearing ice skates in a frozen lake, or so we think. In his spare time, Chris enjoys his dog, riding his bicycle in flip flops year round, and origami. He also really likes climbing pretty much anything and jumping over other things.

Christian Arthur

Bagel Reuse

After hurricane sandy, Bagel the cat decided a pile of scrap wood in the corner of the parking lot was not an ideal home. So he moved in to Big Reuse Brooklyn and soon found himself well fed and loved by staff and customers alike. His fame as a regular instagram personality has gone to his head, and he can now be found lounging arrogantly in the warmest and most petting/food area.

Devin Reitsma

Elizabeth Arce

Elizabeth was part of the media team during Occupy Wall Street in NYC, livestreaming countless of hours from the encampment and actions over an 8 month period. After being inspired by the power of people’s media, Elizabeth moved to the Midwest and co-founded a media collective to document the impact of industrial oil projects on communities out there, where oftentimes low-income and people of color are disproportionately effected.

Elizabeth finds it’s her mission to bring awareness to big cities about their impact on resource extraction and the environment as a whole. She is happy to be working on bringing about this awareness in her home of NYC through the cities new Organics Collection curbside program.

At night you can find her playing trombone in brass bands.

Ellis McNaughton

Erik Hoversten

Erik grew up along the face of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. As an undergrad at the University of Wyoming, he fell in love with philosophy, and that love brought him east to pursue a PhD at Rutgers University in New Jersey. The pursuit is still ongoing. Academically, Erik’s primary interests lie in understanding the structure of human cognition and how we manage to successfully communicate to others what’s going on in our heads. While his chosen career path keeps his nose firmly ensconced in books, Erik also loves sharing what he has learned with others. One of his favorite experiences is seeing an undergrad’s eyes light up upon first encountering a philosophical puzzle. He is equally excited to see new composters’ eyes light up upon realizing what their food scraps can become.

Erycka de Jesus

Erycka is a​ native New Yorker, ​growing up in Western Queens​. As a young person, Erycka’s first encounter with composting was during her visit to the sleep away trail blazers camp. This sustainable approach to life left an impact on her young developing mind, and helped to catapult her connection to her coined term “inner sustainabilist”. As a Master Composter, Erycka has volunteered her time to teaching and demonstrating the invaluable act of composting locally, processing locally, and distributing locally all in the pursuit of assisting our communities in becoming aware of their impact on our natural urban world and in turn acting responsibly. Working and living in a neighborhood where resources are scarce, and poverty prevalent, has taught Erycka that the pursuit of happiness comes from serving the community at large​, networking with like minded groups/organizations​ and becoming the change you want to see!

Fred Maass

Returned from New Orleans, this natural-born hoarder is eager to wring every last drop of “usable” from would-be discarded materials. He once biked 100 miles in 100 degrees with no brakes and one pedal, and has crossed state lines with a hamster, a toad and a box turtle.

Greg Jonassaint

Jessica Perelman

Jimena Gracia

Jimena was raised bilingually in Miami, FL. Her family immigrated from Mexico to the US when she was six, and she has been fascinated by matters of translation and language code switching ever since. When she isn’t staffing a food scrap drop-offs in Queens, she is working as a prep cook at a cafe in Crown Heights or riding her bike to the water.

Justin Green

Justin Green is the Founder and Executive Director of Big Reuse. Justin has overseen Big Reuse’s development from its’ beginning in 2004, having managed the first two deconstruction projects for the Durst Organization that generated the materials required to launch Big Reuse. Justin helped develop the team at Big Reuse the community composting model which Big Reuse has expanded two include two sites.

Together with the original Board of Big Reuse – he created the independent non-profit organization Big Initiatives to host Big Reuse in 2015 when it became independent. Justin also piloted and directed NYC Cool Roofs for its first two years.

Before Big Reuse, Justin worked at a non-profit addressing the housing and energy efficiency needs of low- and middle-income communities. While there, Justin assisted their efforts to establish a statewide loan fund for the installation of energy efficiency measures. He has also managed construction crews in residential development, worked as a Loan Associate with Low Income Investment Fund monitoring loans to non-profit housing developers, and designed for an educational dotcom. Justin received his BA with a double major in Economics and Community Development from Oberlin College.

Lavelle Cannon

Leah Retherford

Leah has one of the greenest thumbs at Big Reuse. She began community gardening in Detroit in 2003 which lead to a position in urban agriculture at the Greening of Detroit and the opportunity to attend the Organic Farmer Training Program at Michigan State University in 2007. After that she was the Farm Manager at the Queens County Farm Museum for many years until coming to Big Reuse in 2015.

Otis Kelsey

Ozzie Martinez

Ozzie was born and raised in the city of New York. Surrounded by an urban jungle that had few healthy options for many people in under-served communities, Ozzie made it his passion to study social issues facing our city today and seek out ways on how he could make a difference. Food justice and sustainable living became the focus to which Ozzie uses to share and teach others about compost, urban farming and leading the next generation to a better place!

Shakara Petteway

One of Shakara’s first jobs was working on a small rural vegetable farm, but after discovering an interest in urban agriculture, she became an Americorps Volunteer with New York Restoration Project. There she taught children and young adults how to grow vegetables, as well as cared for parks and community gardens. As the Public Programs Coordinator, she continued to teach locals about environmental stewardship and urban agriculture. She is eager to be a part of the NYC Compost Project Hosted by Big Reuse and to continue her work as public educator and steward of the environment.

Steve Haskins

Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, Steve landed at Big Reuse through Bard College’s BPI Program. While at Bard (like everyone else around here!), he received an Associate Liberal Arts degree, specializing in history. Some of his previous work experiences include landscaping, woodworking, and custodial work, although some of his best work lies ahead. Steve is currently working on a novel AND a clothing line if you can believe that! Steve LOVES snowmobiling, and basically all other motorized winter sports. What does this guy NOT do?!

Veronica Dougherty

Veronica has been helping artists and dreamers run their businesses for ten years, ever since she was laid off from her job writing horoscopes for websites. In her spare time, she organizes site-specific installations and helps produce Seven Second Delay, a radio show on WFMU.

Vinnie Cannon

Learning from the customers has put me in a win-win situation here at Big Reuse, which is something i truly enjoy: winning and learning. However, not all my education has come from customers. My co-workers are all very knowledgeable individuals, and we all here at big reuse have a desire and a passion for keeping our planet green.